Expertise (Selection)

For more than 10 years, paul und collegen has been tracking and analyzing the development of tax incentive models for film in Europe. This has allowed us to build up an international network of contacts, enabling us to benefit from the latest expert knowledge of the key players first hand. In 2016, we prepared a study for the two Austrian film producer associations, aafp (association of austrian film producers) and Film Austria, which provides an overview of the conception, use and economic effects of tax-incentive models for films from selected European countries, namely the UK, France, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Ireland, Croatia and Lithuania.

In collaboration with Deloitte and L&R Institute for Social Research Vienna, we analysed the economic and fiscal potential and the impact on employment of tax incentives for film in Austria. This study was commissioned in 2017 by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO), with the participation of numerous other sponsors). As first, we analyzed the expenditures of international large-scale productions in Austria in recent years (how much is spent, in which industries, and where in Austria?). Based on this, we have developed a mathematical model with which, for example, we simply simulate the fiscal revenue generated by a tax model (in simple terms, what will the additional revenues of the Treasury if more James Bond films are filmed in Austria?).

Recommendations by international experts have been included in our proposal as well as considerations regarding the harmonious integration of the tax-incentive model for film into the Austrian tax and film- development landscape.

In 2015, the Austrian Federal Chancellery (Film Section) commissioned us to produce a study on the Film Archive Austria and the Austrian Film Museum. The task was to answer the question whether in Austria two different associations with partially overlapping tasks and fields of activity are needed, or whether there are previously unused synergy effects or savings potentials between the two institutions. After detailed discussions in both institutions and a survey of numerous international experts in the field of film archiving (see testimonials), we came to the conclusion that both institutions not only have an outstanding international reputation, but have also developed a profile so different from that to the other, that a merger (not least because there would be virtually no savings generated) would not make sense.

In the course of our study, it quickly became clear that Austria – not least because a large part of the archived holdings of the Austrian audio-visual heritage are in danger of disappearing – needs a strategy to preserve film heritage. As representatives, paul und collegen, together with Filmarchiv Austria and the Austrian Film Museum, have developed such a strategy ("Vision and Mission for Austrian Film Heritage") and submitted it to the Federal Chancellery. In the course of the debates of the German Bundestag Committee for Culture and Media on the preservation of the German film heritage, this met with great interest.

After the closure of the last remaining analog film laboratory in Austria (Synchro) in spring 2016 – a key service provider for analog filmmakers and the two film archives – the Republic of Austria decided to preserve this endangered craft for Austria, so that Austrian analog film can continue to be processed in Austria and the long-term archiving can be done. paul und collegen supported the Federal Chancellery in the acquiring of the synchro-copying machines and, together with Filmarchiv Austria and the Austrian Film Museum (with the help of German and Swedish experts), presented a comprehensive feasibility concept and detailed business planning on the costs of a ‘Film Preservation Center Austria’.